Following months of input from community members and interested parties, including Chester Township Zoning Commission and Geauga County Planning Commission recommendations, a nursing facility will not be coming to Chester Township.
Following months of input from community members and interested parties, including Chester Township Zoning Commission and Geauga County Planning Commission recommendations, a nursing facility will not be coming to Chester Township.
During an Aug. 15 public hearing in front of another packed house, Chester Township Trustees Joseph Mazzurco, Ken Radtke, Jr. and Craig Richter put the final nail in the coffin, voting unanimously to deny the proposed zoning amendment change to allow congregate care.
“One of my obligations that I try to do as a trustee is to think about the long-term interests of the people,” said Radtke. “A decision in favor of this would represent some unintended consequences, create issues and major problems sometime in the future.”
During the last public hearing on July 13, the zoning commission voted unanimously to recommend denial of the proposed amendment, citing a need for more conditions and restrictions requiring modification.
At the heart of the issue was a Phoenix, AZ-based nursing home corporation, Biltmore LLC, who owns property located between King’s Automotive and Bloom Brothers at Mayfield and Caves roads, seeking to build a 96-bed nursing home on the property.
Chester Township does not allow use variances, so the corporation was requesting a change in zoning in the commercial area to allow congregate care.
“In the application, there were three examples that were given for congregate care/nursing home that the applicant included. Two of the three had city water and city sewer, which leads me to believe that if this were to happen, we would eventually end up with the city water,” said Richter.
Biltmore is the acquisition arm of a small group of investors from Cleveland who own nursing homes and/or operate nursing homes and has developed facilities in Highland Heights, Hudson, Brunswick, Mentor, Tallmadge and the Brimfield/Kent area.
Richter said when he was at the zoning commission meeting, the applicant said something that stood out to him related to how the community would benefit if a congregate care facility was built in the township.
“I wasn’t certain that he was sure what location he was in because he said that we would have property tax, payroll tax and income tax, which we don’t have any income tax or payroll tax, so that certainly reduces the benefit that we would have,” said Richter. “He said the facility would be worth $15 million, which will give us a benefit of approximately $327,000 of tax, however, he also told us that there are two facilities that he compared it to, one in Mentor and one in Highland Heights.”
Richter went on to say the facility in Highland Heights includes city water and sewer and is only worth $7.4 million.
“It’s the exact same facility that he was going to put up here,” said Richter.
During every zoning meeting, community members voiced concerns over allowing a congregate care use — which could open the door to high-density housing and drug rehabilitation, the increased need for police, fire and ambulance services, and increased traffic — as well as concerns over sewer capacity and water availability.
Radtke said one worry was the prevalence of pharmaceuticals in wastewater and how effective the Valley View wastewater treatment plant would be in removing them.
“A lot of these people will dispose of their drugs down the drain. These chemicals are designed to withstand our body and digestive systems,” said Radtke. “Some of them pass through, some of them degrade and it takes a long time to degrade.”
Radtke said the impact of Griswold Creek and the contributing source of the Chagrin River is something that needs to be carefully thought out.
“The sludge that gets generated from the wastewater treatment plant gets land applied on agricultural land, the impact of accumulation for pharmaceuticals in our wastewater sludge needs to be thought through,” said Radtke.
He said another concern is emergency services.
“When we were looking at the issue about whether to hire full-time or part-time people, one of the things I learned was about 18% of the time, we are getting what we call double hits, our people are responding to two calls at the same time,” said Radtke.
Radtke added this would create an additional burden, causing more double hits and potentially a triple hit.
“We are fortunate that we work amongst ourselves and cooperate in other communities with others where they share mutual aid,” said Radtke. “They have their staffing issues and troubles, too, and I don’t want to create more of a burden that the township should be handling for other communities. We are going to get tired of trying to serve and help out.”
Since the amendment request was being made for the commercial district in its entirety, congregate care facilities would have been permitted for any property zoned as commercial if the amendment passed.
“I’ve been a part of this process since the beginning of March when it first came to the zoning commission and I’ve always stated that we need to let these things go through the proper channels,” said Mazzurco. “Everybody wants to jump the case and just shut it off. That’s not what America is about. This process, while lengthy, was a good process on how people should bring things if they want change and if they don’t want change. I am not in favor of a facility on that property.”
